The explosion in the popularity of pick-up trucks and/or sport utility trucks (SUTs) has fueled a proliferation of new body configurations. Trucks are offered as standard cabs, king cabs, crew cabs, SPORT TRACS, and the like. Likewise, truck interiors have been adapted to meet the needs for more comfort, more passenger capacity, and the like. One area of the pick-up truck that has yet to undergo a similar evolution is the cargo bed itself.
It is ironic that the most utilitarian element of what is essentially a utilitarian vehicle is, in practical terms, not especially useful. As currently conceived, the standard full-sized pick-up bed is little more than a large empty volume with a few tie-down points scattered along the perimeter of its interior walls or along a bed rail. There is an enormous opportunity to improve the utility and ease of use of a truck bed.
Some trucks are used primarily for work and others primarily for recreation. Many trucks do double-duty supporting both of these spheres of activity. One of the most glaring deficiencies of current bed design is that they are not readily adaptable to the wide variety of applications required by the end user. A truck bed should be able to support and accommodate the very different requirements that are associated with a diverse range of activities.
Generally speaking, bed usage may be grouped into three broad categories: hauling, securing, and separating items in the payload. Most truck users need to perform each of these tasks with some frequency. Yet the demands placed on the bed for hauling are significantly different from those needed to secure or separate items in and around the bed.
When hauling yard waste, plywood, recreational gear, and other items, the ideal condition is to maximize the interior volume of the bed and to maintain an easily accessible loading surface. When securing individual objects in the bed, such as dirt bikes, ATVs, air tanks, furniture, and other items, the ideal condition is to have multiple sturdy tie-down points in close proximity to the object being secured. When hauling and securing combinations of items—heavy objects and fragile equipment, for example—it becomes necessary to separate these items from one another.
This situation has led to a brisk business in after-market systems created by after-market manufacturers. However, while many of these systems are at least partially effective, they are not necessarily designed to interface with the truck in an optimum manner from a functional, structural, and aesthetic standpoint.